New technology for climate change reporting now available to trial

London, UK – November 6th 2012: The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), a special project of CDP’s, today release an XBRL climate change reporting taxonomy. This is designed to transform the way companies report their climate change information by making the process easier and more streamlined. It will also facilitate the future integration of climate change data into mainstream financial reports by enabling easy extraction of material climate information.

London, UK – November 6th 2012: CDP and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), a special project of CDP’s, today release an XBRL climate change reporting taxonomy. This is designed to transform the way companies report their climate change information by making the process easier and more streamlined. It will also facilitate the future integration of climate change data into mainstream financial reports by enabling easy extraction of material climate information.

eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL as it is more commonly known, is an electronic language of the 'XML' family that enables computers to tag and recognize information in a comprehensive and standardized way across existing business systems. It is already widely used for financial reporting in the United States, where it is mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and in the UK where around half the companies filing accounts and tax returns submit in XBRL electronic format.

CDP and CDSB have worked with a number of organizations to harness this technology and create an XBRL climate change reporting taxonomy. Based on the CDP system and CDSB’s climate change reporting framework, the new taxonomy classifies corporate climate data through XBRL to improve the communication and dissemination of climate information.

CDP’s transformative system and data insights, together with the taxonomy and CDSB’s climate change reporting framework will provide a comprehensive toolkit for standardized, investor-quality climate change disclosure. The climate change reporting taxonomy can be used by:

Companies that would like to implement electronic climate change reporting to improve the quality and integrity of climate change disclosures; full adoption of this technology can lead to efficiency savings when producing and auditing multiple requests for climate data;

Governments and regulators to satisfy mandatory disclosure requirements and to accelerate climate change policy; and

Consumers of climate data, including investors, who would like access to reusable and comparable information.

Companies wishing to trial the climate change reporting technology and be at the forefront of progressing climate disclosure should contact CDSB’s expert working group or their CDP account manager. Further details of the taxonomy and taxonomy files can be found here.

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About CDP
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an international, not-for-profit organization providing the only global system for companies and cities to measure, disclose, manage and share vital environmental information. CDP harnesses the power of market forces, including 655 institutional investors with assets of US$78 trillion, to collect information from companies on their greenhouse gas emissions and assessment of climate change and water risk and opportunity. CDP now holds the largest collection globally of primary climate change and water data and puts these insights at the heart of strategic business, investment and policy decisions. Please visit www.cdproject.net to find out more.

About CDSB
The Climate Disclosure Standards Board, a special project of CDP’s, was launched at the World Economic Forum in 2007. CDSB’s framework for climate change reporting was released in 2010 and provides guidance for use by companies when making disclosures in, or linked to, their mainstream financial reports about the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to their business. CDSB’s framework is “standards ready” for adoption by regulators contemplating the introduction or development of climate change disclosure practices. For more information visit www.cdsb.net.